


The Man Who's Working Hard For You

by Chash



Series: Charity Drive 2018 [10]
Category: The 100 (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, F/M, POV Outsider
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-18
Updated: 2018-09-18
Packaged: 2019-07-14 03:20:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,994
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16031921
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Chash/pseuds/Chash
Summary: All Monty wants to do is figure out something to do for his final project in his film class; it's Raven who decides it should be a set-up.Which is not to say Monty isn't down to set Clarke and Bellamy up via music videos. He just wants it on the record that it wasn't his idea.





	The Man Who's Working Hard For You

**Author's Note:**

> Charity fic for [youdoittoo](https://youdoittoo.tumblr.com/)!

It really, honestly, truly does not start off as any kind of zany scheme. Monty would swear this under oath. He would take a polygraph. He would take actual veritaserum, and it would confirm that he wasn't trying to do anything other than pass his film class. 

Okay, he wants to get an A in his film class, but first he has to come up with something to do for his final project, and he's bad at it.

"I think you might not be cut out to be a filmmaker if you can't think of things to film," says Jasper.

"Shut up," says Monty. "I don't necessarily want to _make_ movies, like, as the driving creative force. I want to be a director or a cinematographer or something."

Jasper nods. "So you want someone else to come up with stuff for you to film."

"I guess that explains why you're outsourcing your final project," says Raven.

"I'm asking for ideas! That's not outsourcing, that's--consulting. With friends."

"Uh huh," says Raven.

"I just need an _idea_. I feel like everyone in the class wants to do weird, artsy stuff and I just want to have fun and do cool some camera tricks."

"What else have you done so far?" Clarke asks. As an art person, she's theoretically a good resource, but she mostly does portraits, so he's not sure she really has great film ideas.

"I filmed Jasper trying to break into the science building."

"And I didn't even get in trouble!" says Jasper.

"It was for art. And another time I filmed Bellamy drunk and explaining the plots of classic novels based on his memories of _Wishbone_ episodes."

"And you didn't invite him to the brainstorming meeting?" Clarke asks. She tries to sound casual, but she and Bellamy are, it must be said, totally ridiculous and in perpetual denial about how they want to get married.

In Monty's opinion, anyway.

"He's doing a TA session. It's hard to coordinate all my friends in one place at one time. But he might be stopping by later."

Clarke pretends she cares about this information a normal amount, which isn't fooling anyone, and Raven pipes up, "What about a music video?"

"Music video?"

"Yeah, like, pick a song, come up with an outline, do some cool shit. Maybe post on twitter and see if you can set up a flash mob for the ending. Then you're working with someone else's vision, right?"

Monty brightens. "Yeah, that actually sounds pretty fun."

"It's because I'm awesome," says Raven. 

"Except you've ignored the most important part," says Jasper, wagging his finger. "What's the song?"

"Hey, that's Monty's call. He needs to dig deep, find the inspiration, and come up with a vision. We're not doing _all_ of his homework for him."

"Yeah, that's fair," says Monty. "I can definitely come up with the music on my own."

They're listening to his iTunes library on shuffle and writing down potential songs for inspiration when Bellamy shows up, flopping down next to Clarke and looking generally exhausted.

"Rough day at the office?" she teases.

"God save me from freshmen," he says, rubbing his face. "Seriously, we're halfway through the semester, how have they not learned anything?"

"You're supposed to be teaching them, isn't that a you problem?"

"I can only do so much. What's Monty's emergency?"

"I didn't say _emergency_ , I said _issue_."

Bellamy flashes him one of those grins that makes Monty a little sad he's so in love with Clarke. Not that he really wants to date Bellamy, even leaving that aside, but damn, the guy can smile.

"You have a lot of issues, I didn't think that would narrow it down."

"We're picking a song for him to do a music video of for his final project in film class," Clarke supplies. "So not something you can help with."

"I listen to music," he says, and gives it a second before he adds, "Disco's still cool, right?"

"You know you're twenty-two, not fifty, right?"

"We can't be sure of that," says Jasper. "Immortals could be anywhere."

"If Bellamy is a disco immortal--" Clarke starts, and then closes her mouth with a frown. "I don't actually know what I'll do, I don't have a good ultimatum."

"You'd live with it," says Raven. "Come on, Monty, next song."

Clarke hangs around for three more songs before pretending to have just noticed the time and saying, "Shit, I have an art-history thing tonight, I need to get dinner before. Sorry, Monty."

"You weren't really contributing anyway," says Raven, and Clarke rolls her eyes.

"Thanks, I feel so much better."

"Will you swipe me into the dining hall if I pay you back?" Bellamy asks. He decided to live off-campus for his senior year, sacrificing his dorm and his meal plan for a real apartment, and from what Monty can tell he's regretted it ever since. Not even just as a chance to hang out with Clarke. "I'm not getting groceries until tomorrow."

"You're so lucky I have guest meals."

"I am. Good luck with the project, Monty."

The two of them take off, leaving Monty, Jasper, and Raven alone in Monty's dorm listening to "You'll Be Back" from _Hamilton_ , which is great but probably not the right song for this project.

"Okay," Raven says, into the conversational lull. "Modified idea."

"Yeah?" asks Jasper.

"Cast Bellamy and Clarke as the leads in your music video. If they don't hook up soon, I'm going to murder them, so it's for their own good."

Monty leans back in his chair, thinking it over. "I don't want to fail my class just to hook my friends up."

"Who said anything about failing? I bet they'd be good."

"Ehhhh," says Jasper, making a face. "Bellamy, yeah. But Clarke? I don't know if she could just turn off her brain and have fun."

"If she's with Bellamy, she can," Raven shoots back. "He gets her out of her head."

As Clarke's former roommate, Raven's probably the expert on her, and now that Monty thinks about it, it's probably true. It's part of why he's always thought they'd be good together; they just seem more relaxed and complete, as a unit. And they also get kind of weirdly competitive with each other, but in a fun, productive way.

Plus they're attractive and have great chemistry, so everyone would probably enjoy watching the two of them flirting.

"If they don't agree, you guys have to do it," he says. "I'll ask them first, but I don't want to be scrambling for stars if they say no."

"Deal," says Jasper, clapping his hands in unabashed glee. He loves a good scheme. "Now all we need is a song."

*

They end up with "I'm Gonna Be (500 Miles)" a few hours later, largely because Monty thinks he can have some fun with it. The idea of getting a crowd together to dance to the long da-da sections is appealing, and he figures he can come up with some fun choreography for Bellamy as the guy who's gonna wake up next to Clarke.

As long as he agrees to it.

Monty met Bellamy freshman year through a convoluted set of circumstances. He met Raven first, through his comp sci class, and then Raven's boyfriend cheated on her and she rebounded with Bellamy, and then Bellamy just sort of drifted into the friend group, because even if Raven didn't want to sleep with him again, he was still a cool guy. And he and Monty got along easily, Bellamy slotting into a big-brother role that's as natural to him as breathing. He'll agree to the movie if he possibly can, there's no question of that.

It's just that between his regular classes, his TA duties for Professor Pike, and his thesis, it's possible Bellamy really _won't_ have enough time to do this. In which case there's no point in asking Clarke, because if Clarke was starring opposite Jasper or Raven, she probably would just be kind of weird and awkward.

Well, maybe not Raven. That could work too. But the first step is still asking Bellamy. That's the first choice.

"You know food isn't my only motivation in life, right?" he asks, meeting Monty outside the dining hall two days later.

"Not the only one, but an easy one. And half the time when I ask you to hang out, you say you're busy."

"Possibly because I'm busy. Thanks for buying me lunch," he adds.

"Sure. I'm buttering you up."

"Yeah?"

"Remember my film project?"

"Vaguely. You're doing a music video, right?"

"Yeah. I want you to star in it."

He frowns as Monty swipes them into the dining hall. "Why me?"

"I think you'd be good at it. You're charismatic, you're charming, you're hot--"

"Don't get me wrong, flattery will get you everywhere, but how much of this matters to your assignment, exactly?"

"Casting the right people in the right roles is a huge part of filmmaking. I'm definitely getting graded on that."

Bellamy is quiet as they move down the line to get food, which Monty expected. It's later in the day, towards the end of lunch hours, and they don't really have many places where they're waiting and have time to chat. And Bellamy always likes to have time to think things over.

Once they're sitting, he asks, "Did you pick a song?"

"That 500 miles one," he says. "You know, _I would walk 500 miles_ \--"

He nods. "And I'm the one doing the walking?"

"Yeah." He debates the pros and cons of giving more details, and the pros win. "I think Clarke for the person you're walking to?"

Bellamy freezes in that small, subtle way that people do when they're surprised, like a clockwork toy winding down and then up again as he recovers and brings his glass all the way to his mouth.

"Why Clarke?"

It's the question Monty had been expecting, and the one he hadn't really been sure how to answer. Clarke came into his life a few months after Bellamy did, for similar reasons; she'd been the one Raven's boyfriend was cheating with, and once she dumped him, she was kind of at loose ends. Raven had adopted her, and while Monty likes her and considers her a friend, he's closer to Bellamy. And Bellamy's going to do better talking Clarke into this than he can.

So he says, "Matchmaking", and Bellamy chokes.

"Monty--"

"What?"

He rubs his face. "Seriously?"

"I also think you guys would be good in this and have fun. You both need to lighten up."

"And get laid?"

His voice is careful, but Monty can't be sure exactly why. They aren't really the kind of friends who talk about their love lives, so he's never actually asked Bellamy about Clarke before. Like everyone else in his social circle, he pretty much takes it for granted that they're in love with each other, but they could be wrong.

He might as well find out. "Do you not want to get laid?"

Bellamy rubs his face. "It's not really my call."

"If you _want_ to get laid, that's your call. Whether or not you _can_ get laid is more complicated."

"I'm graduating soon."

"And?" Clarke's a junior like Monty, and he doesn't think Bellamy is planning on going that far regardless. And even if he was, long-distance is a thing.

Bellamy must reach the same conclusion, because he scowls at his plate. "And I like her, yeah. Shut up."

"Sorry, are you mad at me for trying to help set you up with the girl you like? I think she likes you too. I'm assuming this is going to work."

"What exactly am I doing?" he asks finally. 

Monty bites back on his smile, not wanting to flaunt his victory. "Having fun."

"Sure."

"Seriously, it'll be great."

"Have you asked Clarke yet?"

"Not yet. I wanted you to agree first. And I thought maybe you could ask her."

Bellamy snorts. "Seriously?"

"You know her better than I do. And I wasn't sure you wanted me telling her that I was just doing this to set the two of you up."

All the blood abruptly drains from Bellamy's face. "Shit, no."

Monty clamps down on his smile. He wouldn't really _do that_ , not with Clarke, who tends to be a different kind of stubborn than Bellamy, but it's still a little hilarious to see Bellamy running the interaction through his brain and reaching the same conclusion. "Okay, cool, so--you'll convince her?"

"I'll try. I'm not making any promises. About her agreeing _or_ the two of us falling in love. But I'll see what I can do."

"About which one?"

"I'm already not making promises about her falling in love with me." Monty opens his mouth, trying to figure out a pep talk on the fly, but Bellamy holds up his hand. "I don't care what you say, I'm staying realistic with that one. Clarke's not interested in me like that."

"Based on?"

"I'm not going to list all the reasons I think the girl I like doesn't like me back," he says, which Monty has to admit sounds awful, and he wouldn't want to do it either. It's easy for him and Raven and Jasper and basically everyone else who's ever seen Bellamy and Clarke together for more than twenty minutes to say that they're going to work it out, but it's not the same on the inside. Monty's never known how to be sure about this stuff, and he likes to think it's because he never should have been. He likes to think he never missed a chance for something good.

But Bellamy would be. He'd put money on that.

"Fair enough," is what he says. "That sounds like it sucks. Thanks for asking her to do the video for me."

"You owe me one," he says.

"I'll treat you to another lunch sometime."

Bellamy smiles. "That's a start."

*

**Clarke** : What do I have to do in this music video exactly?  
Bellamy is being vague

Monty has been coding for long enough that when his phone buzzes, he assumes it's a reminder to eat, except that he didn't actually set one. He can't say computer science is his passion, but he's good at it, and it's easy for him to get sucked in, to lose sight of everything except for the problem he needs to solve.

Which is why it's now 9:47 and he hasn't eaten since lunch. The dining halls have all already closed, and while he could use his points from dinner at one of the all-night snack bars, that would mean leaving, and he's _so close_ to being done.

He puts in an order for pizza on GrubHub and then texts Clarke back: _How many details do you need?_

Judging from the speed of her response, she's just hanging out somewhere, possibly with Bellamy, waiting to interrogate Monty about his project. Which is probably its own kind of useful. He needs to nail down some details soon.

**Clarke** : Estimated time commitment  
Estimated effort  
How much am I coming up with myself?  
How much do I have to dance?  
Bellamy is way more theatrical than I am

**Me** : Which I think works!  
Bellamy is the man who's doing all the things  
Per the song  
You're the person who's  
Being done  
At  
I've been coding for hours, give me a break  
Anyway I've seen you at parties  
I know you can't dance  
Don't worry, it's part of my vision

**Clarke** : Your vision involves me being a bad actress?

**Me** : Time commitment should be a day or two

**Clarke** : Smooth 

**Me** : I'm hoping to get your and Bellamy's scenes done in one day and then have another day for a big group number  
The big group scene is definitely just one day  
Because I can't get everyone back  
You and Bellamy, that depends on you and Bellamy  
And how good/professional you are  
And yes my subject changes are the best

**Clarke** : You don't have dates yet?

**Me** : No, I'd get those from you  
We'll organize the big shoot around you two  
Everything else is easier to move  
Since all we need is you two and my crew

**Clarke** : Jasper and Raven?

**Me** : If I'm lucky  
Maybe just me and me  
I promise it won't be that much work  
And it'll be fun!

**Clarke** : You think computer code is fun

**Me** : I don't think you want to get into a "who's better at fun" competition with me  
I would put the question to a jury of our peers  
You would not do well

The pause in her response gives him time to code a few more lines. The program isn't due for weeks, but Professor Sinclair gave them the assignment in advance, and if Monty finishes it now, he'll have more time for fun stuff, like coming up with a ridiculous music video to try to enable his friends to fall in love.

Right on cue, Clarke texts back-- _When are we starting_ \--and Monty grins alone in the computer lab.

Junior year is going great, all things considered.

*

"Okay, so--I don't want this whole thing to be, like, a dude is trying to win a woman who doesn't know he exists," says Monty. They're at the dining hall for pre-shoot breakfast; Monty's hope is that they're going to spend basically the whole day filming this and then be done, since he has Raven and Jasper to help out, but things always take longer than he wants them to. "But I kind of want to make it look like that?"

"Meaning what, exactly?" asks Bellamy. 

"We're going to have three perspectives of the scenes we're shooting. Jasper gets Bellamy, Raven gets Clarke, and I get both of you. We're going to do the angles so it looks like you're going through your days separately and Bellamy is this creeper who's into Clarke--"

"That checks out," says Clarke, and Bellamy elbows her.

"--and he's building to this big gesture even though she doesn't know he's alive, but then it turns out that you guys are already dating and it's Clarke's birthday and the whole thing is actually romantic."

"Huh," says Bellamy. "That's pretty good, actually."

"Careful, you'll give him a big head," says Raven, and Bellamy laughs.

"Okay, it's a good premise. Do you have a script or something? Storyboards? What's our plan?"

Monty's spent a week working this out, and it's pretty great, if he does say so himself. He and Jasper have singles now, but singles next to each other, so they dragged his bed into Jasper's room, shoved them together, and put up a bunch of fake decorations to make it look like two different people live on either side of the room. They have a whole itinerary of places they're going and things Bellamy and Clarke will pretend to do separately while really doing together.

But that's later; Monty grins. "We're actually starting here?"

"Here?"

"You're still college students. So first, you're going to have breakfast at the dining hall."

It really is simple; they film the two of them going through the line together, since it's early enough no one is really around, and then Bellamy, looking out over the room, like he's trying to figure out where to sit, if he could sit with this girl he likes. But Clarke walks confidently toward a table, and he smiles and follows her. She talks animatedly--Monty told her it didn't matter about what, so she's complaining about some terrible _Rick and Morty_ fan who's harassing her on tumblr--and Bellamy pretends to be zoning out until she shakes his arm.

Monty can see it all coming together so easily, the out-of-context stress about the big birthday surprise that comes across as lonely longing, staring at her while she's talking to someone else.

And he actually feels pretty good about using up their whole Saturday, too. The song will be proving the audio, so they can talk about whatever they want, and given how hard both Bellamy and Clarke work, Monty's pretty sure it's good for them to take a day to just hang out and chat. They go to the museum, a few different academic buildings, the bookstore, film the prelude to the final scene, with Clarke finding a note on her white board telling her to go to the quad, and finish up the night with a round of drinks on Monty at their favorite bar.

And of course they get some footage of them with the alcohol before the relaxing begins--"if I get drunk" is right there in the song, after all--but it's not a _lot_ of footage.

"This is probably going to turn out pretty cool," Clarke says. She's jammed in next to Bellamy in the booth, probably closer than she has to be, but no one is going to bring it up. "But I don't know how you're going to get it down to four minutes or however long."

"That was the idea," Monty says, trying not to grin too hard. It went _so well_. He's going to have so much fun putting everything together. "So I don't have to drag you guys back in for reshoots."

"Just the flash mob."

He nods. "Two weeks from today. With some rehearsals for Bellamy."

"Sucks to be you," Clarke teases.

"Are you kidding? I have the easy part."

Clarke frowns. "How?"

"All I have to do is learn a dance. You have to pretend that someone setting up a flash mob for your birthday would be a cool surprise and not your actual worst nightmare."

"That's true, that's actually a lot of acting," says Raven. "You would hate that so much."

"Yeah, but this is a fictional version of me, who thinks Bellamy is being romantic." She takes a sip of beer with a shrug. "It's not even that hard."

"Oh good," says Monty, and she flashes him a quick smile. 

"I'm just saying, I know this isn't actually what Bellamy would do if we were dating and he wanted to do something nice for me. But if I just think about what his actual romantic gestures would look like, it'll be fine."

For just a second, Bellamy looks like someone punched him, but he recovers before Clarke notices, manages his usual teasing grin. "So you're just going to pretend I made you French toast, bought you a nice canvas, and reserved a day for us to do nothing but marathon _The Good Place_ on Netflix?"

"I assume you'd put a candle in the French toast."

"Obviously."

"See?" says Clarke, turning her attention to Raven so she doesn't see the bright blossom of Bellamy's smile. Monty's fingers itch for the camera, for the perfect shot, but it's not his. This has nothing to do with his movie. 

"Yeah," says Raven, with a smile of her own. "I got it."

*

Editing film is a lot like writing code or gardening: it's a long, fiddly, not particularly interesting process that ends with something like magic, and Monty loves it in spite of itself. Everything is worth it when the flower blooms, when the game runs, when the video is perfect and seamless. When no one can tell just how many hours he spent making sure it would look effortless.

Unfortunately, before he has that magic moment, he has the hours and hours in the lab, obsessing over every little thing. He watches Bellamy and Clarke for so long he thinks he might hate them start to hate them.

But then Clarke shows up with coffee, so all is forgiven.

"I can't believe you're still here. Jasper said you came after breakfast." 

Monty blinks rapidly, awareness coming back to him all at once, the dryness of his eyes, the ache of his shoulders, his back, his legs, and the pressing need to use the bathroom. 

He _has_ to remember to set alarms. He's going to starve to death someday, and he'll have no one to blame but himself.

"I really shouldn't be. Let me go to the bathroom and then I'll thank you for the coffee."

"Sure. Can I take a look at what you have?"

"Go ahead."

He uses the bathroom, washes his hands, splashes some water on his face for good measure. He got texts from Jasper that he was ignoring, and he replies to those while he glances at his emails and social media. He can still make it to dinner like a normal person. 

When he set up his schedule so he wouldn't have class on Thursday, he'd planned to use it as a day off, not a day he'd lose entirely to video editing, but whatever, at least he got a lot done.

Clarke is still at the computer when he gets back, scrolling through the footage with as much intensity as Monty was before. He wants to have a draft done before they do the dance scene tomorrow, so he can make any adjustments he wants to, but Clarke's left the partially completed file and is just scanning through the stills like she's hypnotized.

It doesn't take him long to figure it out; they're images of Bellamy, looking at her, and he has resting heart eyes. Even when he's not trying, every single frame is a fucking love letter. And Clarke has thousands of them right in front of her.

Monty sits down next to her carefully, not wanting to spook her, and Clarke glances at him with a strange, ghostly smile. "He's really good at this, huh?"

"I might have type cast him. He's got a natural aptitude for this."

Clarke looks back at the screen, tapping her finger against the mouth without actually pressing any buttons. "He does have a pretty great face, huh."

"And that's not even the best part of him."

She looks at him, sharp, but the expression dissolves into a self-conscious smile. "I know. Trust me, I know exactly how great Bellamy is."

"Cool, well--he knows how great you are too."

"Yeah," she agrees, biting her lip as she scrolls through a few more images. "I guess he does."

*

"So, are you ready?" Monty asks. He's had no indication that anything happened with Bellamy and Clarke, and while he wants to ask, he doesn't want to pry, and he definitely doesn't want to throw Bellamy off before his big scene. They can wait a couple more hours.

Bellamy is shaking his shoulders out, cracking his neck. "Harper's been making me rehearse every hour she can get. At this point, I just want it to be over."

"Same. But I think it's going to be fun."

He smirks. "You're just saying that because you're filming instead of dancing."

"That is absolutely why I'm saying it. Good luck."

It's not a _real_ flash mob, Monty's pretty sure, because it's formally staged and he posted about it on a bunch of college forums, so everyone knows what's going on. But he's not going to take risks when his grade is at stake. Harper is a dance major, so she covered all the choreography, as well as helping with recruitment, and he's going to owe so many people pizza when this thing is over, but whatever. It's going to be awesome and so very worth it.

Raven and Clarke were already here, going over the plan one last time, but they needed footage of Clarke walking over to contrast with Bellamy, so Raven's filming that now, one smooth shot following her into the quad as the music bursts into life and half the crowd starts dancing.

Miller starts the music up right as Clarke steps onto the sidewalk, and Monty is actually giddy with how perfectly it goes, how everything comes together just like it was supposed to, not a step out of place, every note pitch perfect. It's just how he pictured it, and when the music ends and Bellamy stops in front of Clarke, having danced his way through the whole crowd just to drop down in front of her with a flourish.

And then Clarke tugs him up and kisses him.

Bellamy doesn't miss a beat, slides his arms around her and tugs her in, and she must have told him, they must have planned this, because there's no way he's a good enough actor to be not reacting to a spontaneous display of affection like that. They look like the comfortable couple they're supposed to be, like this was a welcome surprise and she's showing her appreciation for a gesture he knew she'd love.

Monty, meanwhile, is just thankful he had his camera on a tripod, because if he didn't, he would have dropped it.

By some miracle, Jasper doesn't drop his, but he does breathe, "Holy shit."

"Seriously."

"Did you script that?"

"No, I just had a hug."

"Are they--" He gestures, and Monty shrugs.

"I have no idea."

Bellamy pulls back and Clarke kisses him again, quick, and then disengages, smirking at Monty like the cat who got the canary. "Good take?"

"Perfect." He's smiling too, can't help it. "I guess you told him how much you liked his face."

"It's a pretty great face." She leans into Bellamy's side, and he kisses her hair, his own expression less smug than Clarke's but no less brilliant. "So, you get everything you need?"

He hasn't reviewed the footage yet, but there's no doubt in his mind.

"Absolutely perfect," he says. "Thanks for the help."

"Right back at you."

"It was Raven's idea. I'm just the director."

"Still."

He smiles. "I always did want my art to make a difference."

Bellamy lets go of Clarke to squeeze Monty around the shoulders. "I'd say you did it."

He looks down at the last frame on his camera, Bellamy and Clarke grinning at each other, a perfect closing shot. "Yeah, I guess I did."


End file.
